Hi all -
I've been a little quiet on-list about progress in the past month, so sorry
about that. I've been busy prototyping and confirming a few things with
Dartware about the API and stuff, and am finally ready to commence the alpha
testing phase.
PROGRESS
Before I go into the "open questions" part, here's a link to some indication
of the App concept so far.
http://www.markmackay.co.nz/intermapper/Mockups.html
While these are technically mockups, I actually have a number of the
application screens looking pretty close to what is drawn here. Here's an
actual screenshot, showing a varied UI approach I'm exploring.
http://www.markmackay.co.nz/intermapper/Screenshots.html
BACKGROUND
For anyone who missed my first post -- my goal is to create:
A thumb-optimised client to InterMapper, that provides smart notification
and quick access to "What's wrong?" for Net/Sys-Admins on-the-go.
Key features I'm aiming to deliver are:
- Map and Device list
- Outages list
- Ability to acknowledge a device, smartly.
- Push notifications
QUESTION TO THE COMMUNITY
The mockup is designed to display a starting point for discussion. While I
don't want excessive clutter/information overload, in the interface -- my
key question to you all -- is what information is KEY to you to see on each
screen...
I've a few specific questions/focus areas below, but I'd appreciate any
thoughts or comments you all have.
----------
GENERAL INFO / LAYOUT
----------
The general information flow in the prototype so far is as follows (e.g.
differs slightly from the mockup).
The Tabs I loosely expect are:
Dashboard
Maps (or maybe 'Devices')
Interfaces <-- maybe. see below
Notifications <-- future version
Settings
I've focused my development so far on the Maps/Devices area, and it's like
this:
Maps
Devices
Device Detail
Acknowledge
All screens refresh every 30 seconds, or you can manually refresh by
clicking the button.
----------
MAPS LIST
----------
- the numbered circles on the right are intended to represent
'unacknowledged issues'
- the circles/icons on the left to represent via a colour identifier, which
maps have major issues/etc
I was trying to avoid excessive display of digits or high-visual-impact
words - and considered that basically if a Map has a 'down' device, you'll
look at that first. If it has 10 down devices, then that's worse -- but
you'd still look at it anyway.
- Is the sort order of the maps important? e.g. does it need to be
customisable?
I was expecting to have them alphabetical -- but with 'has a problem' maps
at the top. I'm guessing some of you have 100 maps -- so re-ordering that
list may be a bit of a hassle...
- Do you care about maps that are "OK"? Should they just be hidden?
----------
DEVICES LIST
----------
On the left:
- Status Icon
- "Time went Down"
- Probe (short name)
What other information is important to you here?
(If you can include the XML field name or a very clear description of the
text from the web interface that would really help!)
- Does this need to vary per probe?
... or, is the detail page enough -- and maybe only the
"StatusLevelReason" field here.
----------
DEVICE DETAIL
----------
I'm still exploring this area, but basically expect to have:
- Outage summary at the top
- 'Acknowledge Link' or 'Acknowledged message'
- Detailed stats (most useful fields i can get via the HTTP API)
- Link to Web View screen (possibly)
The web view link may be useful to show things like 'recent outages' --
which i don't think i can get from the HTTP API. But is that info really
important, as a *first responder* tool? (i.e. you'll be at your computer
when working on it, so will have the web page then. So on the road, surely
you just need to know it is down now)
- I'd be keen to know which fields are more important than others ... e.g.
the ones i try to show at the top of the detailed status field, so you don't
have to scroll... Perhaps suggest your "Top 10" in replies.
----------
ACKNOWLEDGE SCREEN
----------
Ah - the whole reason i wrote the app!
I am not certain how you guys all use Acknowledge (and would love to hear
how, so i can get this screen right).
I personally want devices acknowledged 'as soon as someone is working on
it', so that the next technician on-call doesn't need to get out of bed
too... e.g. a way of letting teams know things are under action.
I suspect others, only acknowledge them once they're fixed or bypassed/etc?
If so - this screen may not be much use -- as you'll probably 'fix' things
with your computer and InterMapper Remote handy.
I expect to have the status messages customisable in the settings at some
point, so you can tailor it to your preferences.
The following mockup screen, shows a device after it's been acknowledged
The API currently won't support Timed or Indefinite acknowledgements, but I
think Dartware will be coming to the party in the future for this. So I'll
update the App interface when this is available.
----------
NETWORK INFO
----------
For the past few years, I've mainly worked on systems - as opposed to
network devices, so I'm not sure exactly what people want on the road for
network status. Please let me know what is important to you.
- Should interfaces be just included like they were a 'down device' on a the
Devices list? or should they be on their own tab?
- What specific fields do you need to see
- when a device / link is not in an error state ... what info are you
looking for? e.g. should the list be sorted by utilisation? or by
discards? etc
===================================
ROADMAP
===================================
I also decided to do more of an "incremental release" approach, rather than
try to get everything into version 1.0. This buys me time to totally solve
the server/trust issue i raised a while back.
I'm hoping to work to approximately the following timeline. If i can do
better, great -- but I'm doing this on top of a 'day job' and have a new
baby, so that's not always easy!
ALPHA (FEB/MARCH)
As mentioned, I'm getting ready to start some active day-to-day alpha
testing of the application, hopefully with my workplace. I think this will
need to last a 2-4 weeks, as it's new software after all -- and there will
be performance issues, communications errors, etc -- which I haven't handled
well on my rapid prototype.
BETA (MARCH/APRIL)
A few people have expressed interested in testing and providing feedback on
a beta version. So I'll probably distribute 20-30 copies and see how it all
works 'in the wild' and deal with any issues that arise.
1.0 (APRIL?)
- read-access to devices/network/etc
- acknowledgement interface
1.0.1 - 1.x (APRIL/MAY)
Expect to release rapid updates to fix any issues, and add improvements
based on feedback from initial users. Hopefully every 2 weeks, if Apple can
keep up with me :)
1.5 (JUNE?)
- Push notifications
Unfortunately it will probably be mid-year until this is available, maybe a
bit earlier. I already have push working, but it needs to work with
everyone's setup, and integrate with the App -- so I've a bit to work
through here.
My main concern is making sure version 1.0 works well. I'm not too fussed
about AppStore reviews/etc for this sort of product -- it's a closed
community more or less, so you can flame me on-list for bugs. But i know
that if you guys are going to switch from using SMS to using Push
notifications, you need to know it works.
===================================
IPAD
===================================
Yes -- I have been thinking about an iPad version. This will probably be a
v2.0 thing ... I won't get an iPad in NZ until mid-year unfortunately. I can
think of ways to improve the interface to provide more at a glance on the
bigger screen -- and would obviously introduce graphs, maps, etc... but some
of the cooler stuff would need some discussion with Dartware about their API
roadmap.
...................................
if anyone has any other radically different UI ideas or ways to optimise
what I've mocked up, and is handy with a drawing program - or can
sketch-and-scan, I'd love to consider your thoughts. Post to the list if you
want peer feedback, else just email me at the address below.
Thanks for reading down this far. I look forward to hearing your thoughts,
and getting version 1.0 out the door!
Warm regards,
Mark Mackay.
[email protected]
____________________________________________________________________
List archives:
http://www.mail-archive.com/intermapper-talk%40list.dartware.com/
To unsubscribe: send email to: [email protected]
